


i could be your new addiction

by starbuckstomlinson



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: (sorry about the lack of harry i'll make it up to you guys), M/M, and just a oneshot for my friends i'm so sorry, and liam chills there way too often probably, based very loosely on almost-events, cute boys in love whoops, sassy barista louis, should be a full tag on here i'm just sayin, zayn is an only-slightly-less-sassy barista
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 08:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2381183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starbuckstomlinson/pseuds/starbuckstomlinson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Zayn’s mind, a “regular” was someone who fit a certain mold: comes in around the same time most every day and orders the same thing 98% of the time and says please and thank you and is generally unremarkable besides that. So, no, Liam-with-the-muscles (Louis’ nickname, thank you very much) was definitely not a regular. He was, however, an inexplicable daily visitor to what had to be the world’s busiest Starbucks, and what happened to also be Zayn’s Starbucks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i could be your new addiction

**July 25th**  
  
In Zayn’s mind, a “regular” was someone who fit a certain mold: comes in around the same time most every day and orders the same thing 98% of the time and says please and thank you and is generally unremarkable besides that. So, no, Liam-with-the-muscles (Louis’ nickname, thank you very much) was definitely not a regular. He was, however, an inexplicable daily visitor to what had to be the world’s busiest Starbucks, and what happened to also be _Zayn’s_ Starbucks.  
  
It was nearing the end of the night, and weekdays were thankfully a little slow around closing. Louis was already finishing dishes in the back, having left Zayn in charge of the customers with very strict instructions to not be a dick. Which was harder than it sounded, really, so Zayn was basically just doodling on the back of his hand while the short line moved through indecisively, itching to get back to actually making the drinks. He knew he had very poor customer service skills, but he made a damn good cappuccino, so most people forgave him the smaller failings.  
  
“What’ll it be?” He asked again without looking up, clicking his pen in a way that was so annoying he didn't even know why he did it. Blame Louis for buying the clicky Sharpies instead of normal ones.  
  
“Uhhhh,” a familiar voice began. Zayn looked up in spite of himself and definitely did not smile a little at the perpetually confused look on the other guy’s face. The way he always scrunched it up when he was trying to pick something to order was—well it wasn’t _cute._ Amusing, maybe.  
  
Liam met Zayn’s eyes a little helplessly. “What do you recommend?”  
  
“You ask me that every time, and every time I tell you to try the doubleshot and every time you tell me it sounds like too much coffee and ‘maybe next time,’” Zayn grinned, writing it on the cup anyway. “Relax, I’ll put a shit ton of sweet stuff in there for ya.”  
  
Liam relaxed a little and nodded. “But if I hate it—“  
  
“No, I will not make you something different. You asked, remember?”  
  
Zayn definitely did not chuckle at the way Liam’s nose scrunched up again. “Fine. It’d better be good then. How much?”  
  
“Dollar ninety-five,” Zayn lied, punching in a tall coffee. (Louis would catch him if he’d marked it out, and he just couldn’t deal with the teasing that was sure to follow such a colossal display of—well, of whatever.) “It’s uh, Liam, right?” He raised an eyebrow, pretending to wait for Liam to confirm before he wrote it on the cup.  
  
Liam’s cute face-scrunch got a little sad, and then he shook his head with a laugh. “Like you don’t know—you've already written it and everything, haven’t ya?”  
  
Zayn allowed himself a grin to match Liam’s and set the cup on the bar. “Comin’ right up.”  
  


* * *

**August 10th**  
  
“He probably thinks you’re creepy. You should like. Say more than two words to him sometime maybe?”  
  
“Hey what happened to ‘Jesus, Zayn, you’re gonna burn the milk if you don’t stop making goo-goo eyes at Liam-with-the-muscles’?” Zayn hissed back at Louis.  
  
Rather than replying, Louis did a forty-five second eyeroll and sauntered away, waving a hand back at Zayn. “Do work and all that, yeah?”  
  
Zayn returned the eye roll and made sure the lid was fastened securely before handing off the last of what had seemed like a never-ending line of frappuccinos that afternoon. It was a lone quiet moment on an otherwise busy Sunday afternoon, and Liam was sitting with his friend Niall at the bar making faces at Louis and trading what sounded like fantasy football tips (or like, maybe it was about real football, he wasn't sure what the difference was really). Actually, Zayn was pretty sure Niall had overheard their whispered conversation from a moment ago and was just miraculously polite enough to ignore it.  
  
With a start, he realized it had been a solid minute since he’d done anything but stare at Liam, and it would really not do for Louis to return to _that_. (Although the giggles from the back room told him that Louis was in fact texting Harry and would probably not be back for a while.)  
  
“Ya need anything?” Zayn tossed out casually, deliberating making eye-contact only with Niall.  
  
“Would ya look at that customer service?” Niall beamed while Liam snickered. “Nah, we're good, man.”  
  
Zayn nodded— _so casually_ —and started wiping down the counter while the two packed up their laptops.  
  
“We’re outta here before it gets too crazy," Niall called as they headed for the door.  
  
Zayn nodded back—again, very very casually—and Liam sort of half-waved, looking like he wanted to say something but deciding against it. Zayn knew the feeling.  
  
“Thank _god_ ,” Louis bellowed before they’d made it outside. “Maybe now you’ll finally get some work done.” He winked at Zayn and then waved at Niall and Liam. “Tomorrow, lads!”  
  
“Tomorrow,” they called back in unison, and for half a second, Zayn wished he had half his friend’s people skills. But then he realized it was probably good that the world only had one Louis. Yeah, definitely for the best.  
  


* * *

**September 25th**  
  
“Worst. Day. Ever.”  
  
For once, Louis didn’t try to argue, but that may have been because he was too busy calling out drink after drink as they tried in vain to thin out the line. Zayn was supposed to have been off like forty minutes ago, but he could hardly leave when things were this busy. Louis would definitely grouse about it later, but for now Zayn knew he appreciated the help.  
  
Liam was in today (as always), but he was scrunched up alone in the window seat, looking very engrossed in a game of Candy Crush on his phone. Against his better judgement, Zayn had made him some ridiculous frappuccino he’d seen online earlier in the week, and Liam had practically drained it in a single gulp. Normally, Zayn refused to make “secret menu bullshit” on principle, but he’d seen this one pop on his pinterest feed and immediately known that Liam would love it. So he memorized the recipe and gave it a shot, promising Louis he’d mark it out later. His suspicion had been correct, and Liam looked like a kid with the world’s best ice cream cone when Zayn handed it over the counter and told him it was on the house (which, okay, was probably his favorite part of his job).  
  
That had been hours ago, though, and now Liam was nursing a drip coffee with ungodly amounts of cream and sugar and probably half the chocolate powder form the shaker, and Zayn should probably stop watching him make a face after every sip and do his damn job. Is what Louis would say.  
  
So when Zayn went back to the line of drinks, he was surprised when Louis turned to him and said, instead, “Hey, man, can you just clean up a little and change out the half-and-half and get outta here? I’m gonna be in so much trouble if you hit overtime for the like. Fourth week in a row.” He grinned, like he wasn’t all that worried, and slapped Zayn on the back. “Seriously. Scram.”  
  
Zayn shrugged and grabbed a rag and a full carafe, and noticed that Liam was moving, too, to hover awkwardly near the condiment bar (which, _of course_ , was exactly where Zayn was headed). They exchanged a brief nod, and Zayn, rushing to get this taken care of so he could go sit in the back for an hour and _breathe_ , plopped the carafe on the bar and tried to slide around to the other side except— His shoe caught on the tile and he suddenly lurched forward, completely off-balance and faster than he could catch himself and basically straight at the last person he wanted around to see him take a tumble. And then it got worse.  
  
There was a moment—an endless, impossible moment—between cursing his non-slip soles and praying for death to take him, that Zayn was 300% certain he was going to fall directly onto Liam’s mouth. It wasn’t wishful thinking ( _wasn’t_ ), it was his actual trajectory. They were close enough in height that for about .2 seconds there was a very real possibility that Zayn’s face and Liam’s face were about to become far too well acquainted. And then, somehow, Liam was side-stepping Zayn’s mouth and catching him instead—making this only the second most embarrassing possible outcome. Liam—built-like-a-mountain Liam—steadied Zayn in strong arms as he righted himself with muttered apologies and thanked every god he’d ever heard of that he’d already set the milk down.  
  
“Jeez, that was close, huh?” Liam joked, trying to lighten the mood.  
  
Zayn straightened his apron uselessly and debated just running out the door. The 30 other customers who’d seen him trip had politely turned away now that nothing all that exciting had happened—with the notable exception of Niall, who’d just walked in and was standing at the bar with Louis, positively cackling. Zayn knew it wasn’t malicious (actually Niall probably wasn’t laughing at him at all, but rather at something Louis had said—which was almost certainly malicious).  
  
Without looking up, Zayn attempted a shrug and pretended to clean something (he wasn’t even sure what). Liam looked a little lost, and Zayn heard an impatient customer trying to regain Louis’ attention, which almost certainly earned them a look. Weirdly, everything seemed to have suddenly gone back to normal without inviting Zayn along for the ride, and he hoped the specks of mocha on his face hid his blush.  
  
He felt a hesitant brush of fingers against his shoulder and almost flinched away before he realized it was Liam. He definitely should have flinched away.  
  
“Sorry,” Liam blurted. “I, uh—I’m glad you’re alright.”  
  
“Thanks to you,” Zayn muttered without thinking, and then he felt his cheeks heat up all over again. He was supposed to be off for the night after setting out the goddamn half-and-half, but at this rate he’d go into the back and never come out again.  
  
He felt rather than saw Liam’s grin, then, and relaxed in spite of himself, belatedly realizing that Liam's hand was still on his arm. “I’m off in a few,” he said to no one in particular, still keeping his head ducked a little and pretending to clean the counter.  
  
“Excellent,” Liam replied. “That’s….excellent.” He faltered a little. “Big, uh, big plans tonight?”  
  
Zayn nodded. “Laundry night—I’m pullin’ out all the stops, really.”  
  
If Zayn ever thought Liam had looked uncertain before, that was nothing compared to the poor guy’s face now. “D’yawannagrababeerwi’me?” he managed.  
  
Zayn just stared.  
  
And then stared some more.  
  
Liam stared back, seemingly astonished that the words had come out of his mouth.  
  
“YES,” about six different voices shouted from around the store, from regulars and fellow baristas who were as sick of the sexual tension as Louis, who added, “Just take him home already, jeez,” in what he probably would later pretend was a whisper.  
  
Zayn wanted to melt into the floor, but he also wanted to get a beer with Liam. So he just stood there, still covered in various sticky coffee substances, looking between Liam and Louis and his feet as he tried to form words. Harmless, over-the-counter flirting was one thing, but this? Zayn had zero experience with this, as Louis had so kindly reminded him during their last (disastrous) night out.  
  
So he just shrugged and sort of half-nodded and definitely did not smile a little as Liam’s face broke into a huge grin.  
  
“I'll just…wait for you out here, then?”  
  
Zayn swallowed. “Sure. I, uh, I don’t have a change of clothes, really, so…”  
  
“You look good in that,” Liam said, clearly without thinking (if his instant blush was anything to go by).  
  
“Oh. Okay. Well. Cool.” Zayn finally moved away from Liam’s hand to duck into the back. “Gimme like. Two secs. Seconds. Two seconds.”  
  
“Two seconds,” Liam agreed, still blushing but still grinning, too.  
  
Hiding a grin, Zayn ignored Louis’ and Niall’s cheers and Louis’ ecstatic “Harry’s gonna flip!” as he jogged into the back and yanked off his apron. He had a date. With _Liam_. _Liam-with-the-muscles_. Louis could tease all he wanted, as far as Zayn was concerned.  
  


* * *

**September 26th**  
  
“WELL?” Louis demanded, the second Zayn walked in the door. “You didn’t text me back last night, man, _how was it_?”  
  
“The beer or the sex?”  
  
“The…….????”  
  
Zayn relished Louis’ open-mouthed astonishment for a moment before chuckling and shaking his head. “I’m joking. We just. Chilled. Talked.”  
  
Louis looked crestfallen. “No sex?”  
  
“No sex,” Zayn said firmly. “Not that…….Well, it was nice.”  
  
“He kissed you!” Louis crowed.  
  
Zayn blushed and shrugged past him into the back.  
  
 _“He fucking kissed you!”_  
  
“He’s not trying to deny it, is he?” came a second voice from the doorway.  
  
Zayn froze, and then decided he really didn’t have anything to be embarrassed about. “Nope, not denying it,” he called back.  
  
“Good.” Liam stepped into view, grinning bigger than ever. “Morning, Lou.”  
  
“Is that really all you’ve got to say for yourself?” Louis clucked his tongue. “You go and you mack on my best barista and all you’ve got to say is ‘morning, Lou’?”  
  
“Nope.” Liam shook his head, just as Zayn reappeared from the back, tying on his apron. “Morning, Zayn,” he said, pecking him on the cheek.  
  
Zayn blushed again, but smirked at Louis, who tried to turn his grin into a scowl.  
  
“Oh, go make some damn coffee.”

**Author's Note:**

> **Louis-as-inexplicable-shift-supervisor is basically my favorite thing and I refuse to apologize.
> 
> **This did not actually happen to me but it almost did once and I made the mistake of texting Ginger about it so here we are.
> 
> **[tumblr](http://www.ridiculouisly.tumblr.com) ! :)


End file.
